Durbin calls on White House to release tapes of Trump's remarks about African countries [View all]

[highplainsdem]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin is standing behind his statement that President Trump used a vulgar term to refer to African countries and is calling on the White House to release any recordings it might have of the exchange.

Speaking to reporters in his home state, Durbin said Monday he didn’t record the conversation between Trump and a bipartisan group of lawmakers last Thursday because visitors are required to check their cell phones before entering the Oval Office. Durbin said he doesn’t know if the White House has recordings of the meeting either.

“If there was,” he said, “I want to just call on the White House right now, release whatever you have. If they don’t have it, so be it.”

Durbin, a Democrat, said last week that Trump had told lawmakers during the meeting on immigration policy that the U.S. didn’t need any more immigrants from Haiti and that he’d rather have more from Norway and fewer from "shithole countries" in Africa.

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Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/01/15/durbin-calls-white-house-release-tapes-trumps-remarks-african-countries/1033972001/

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According to Bill Palmer at the Palmer Report, this challenge by Durbin this morning is probably what led to Trump's name-calling a few hours later:

http://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/tapes-shithole-trump-dick-durbin/7404/

his afternoon Donald Trump finally began attacking Senator Dick Durbin, several days after Durbin confirmed that Trump made a racist and vulgar remark during their meeting about immigration. What finally set Trump off and caused him to lash out at “Dicky Durbin” on Twitter in buffoonish fashion? Perhaps it was because, just hours earlier, Durbin hit a sore spot when he demanded that Trump release tapes of the meeting.

So why is Durbin suddenly hinting that Trump might have tapes of their meeting? (link). It’s probably in response to Trump’s admission on Twitter this week that he’s begun secretly recording his meetings with reporters. As proof, Trump’s White House posted an audio clip from his recent interview with the Wall Street Journal. If Trump and his people have reached the point of paranoia where they’re taping his meetings with reporters, then they’ve surely become paranoid enough to record his meetings with members of Congress.

Durbin appeared to simply be taking a shot in the dark, on the chance that there are tapes of Trump’s “shithole countries” remark, in the hope of goading Trump into admitting he’s secretly recording White House meetings – which would cause all kinds of new problems for him. So it’s worth noting that shortly after Durbin demanded that Trump release tapes, Trump began attacking Durbin on Twitter.

Donald Trump tweeted “Senator Dicky Durbin totally misrepresented what was said at the DACA meeting. Deals can’t get made when there is no trust! Durbin blew DACA and is hurting our Military.” Is he lashing out because Durbin managed to hit on something real? Have Trump and his White House truly gone Full Nixon by secretly recording every White House meeting that takes place? If so, that could prove to be an even more politically damaging scandal – and Robert Mueller would move to subpoena all such tapes immediately.

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